Living based on neuronal firing. That's what I like to think at least. Neural control in the end influences everything about the body. It can be argued that signalling is controlled by neural and hormonal elements, and this is definitely fair, but without the neural elements (the hypothalamus and pituitary) then hormonal control would not be possible. Therefore all of the elements that keep us alive can be brought down to our brain and our neurochemistry.
Between 86 billion to 17.2 trillion action potentials (possibly more, possibly less) firing at every second. Signals telling us about everything we are, everything that is outside of us, telling us ideas about the past and the future, creating the concept of the past and the future and going further then that to develop another concept for the concept of the past and the future. Developing ideas based on ideas and layering them up to make something completely new. Creation.
And somewhere along the way this happened. Somehow we developed to be able to do this, to not just feel and respond, but to think and to go outside of the box and see a different world than the one we actually see.
To find meaning in every day occurrences.
These signals are tiny, insignificant really. If you use a patch clamp method then you can isolate one neuron and look at an individual cell firing an individual signal and it is nothing. Just movement of ions, something that we do with electrical circuits on a daily basis to switch on the light. Just one signal means nothing.
But it means everything.
One signal acts with all of the other single signals and that is what makes our reality as we perceive it.
Living is based on neuronal firing. I recently started taking sertraline to try and help with anxiety levels, which have been growing for a while, and currently I am feeling the signals changing. While the serotonergic neuronal population in the brain is probably small, probably less than 1% of the total number of neurons that exist in the brain (the majority being glutamatergic and GABAergic) the interactions from changing those signals is evident.
The reason for this is that the brain is not just a switch-on/switch-off system. It is modulatory, with the character of the signals changing frequently. Sertraline is an example of a selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitor, meaning that it can inhibit the reuptake of serotonin by the pre-synaptic membrane meaning that more serotonin should be present in the synaptic cleft (the space between two neurons) for longer and so be able to communicate with the other neuron for longer leading to there being more of an effect caused by serotonergic receptors on the postsynaptic membrane. This is meant to reverse any imbalance in the interactions that occur and reduce the symptoms of conditions such as depression and a variety of anxiety disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder.
Changing the system. It changes an imbalance and so changes the firing, which in turn changes the picture.
It may not be changing what I perceive. I am seeing the same things, hearing the same things, touching the same things. But it is changing what is happening inside of me, it is changing my response to that.
Or maybe I'm changing. Neural plasticity. Maybe I'm becoming something different.
But something is changing. And that is an odd concept and honestly I do not like it. It feels wrong, something feels wrong and I am not able to figure out the cause properly. I know the science (well, as much as anyone knows it, the answer is that actually we don't understand much about any of this at all), but the reality doesn't make sense, and that is tricky. There is no simple answer, intact there is kind of no answer to what is happening.
There is just what is happening. There is life.
And where there is life, there is a continuing flow of events that have the potential to change. This could mean getting worse, but more importantly it could mean things getting better. A future where things are ok being developed out of the wreckage.
So that is what is there to continue with I guess. Things will go somewhere at some point, you just need to carry on and see where it takes you. And I guess that this is me writing about these things in some way. I'm ZackSkylar101 and I am going to try and write some stuff every now and then to try and give another perspective for people to read about. I have studied neuroscience and like brains
And all in all I just wanted to write something, so here's a thing If anyone has any questions about the science then I'm happy to try and explain bits (I quite enjoy it, so if anyone is curious I can try and give some answers), but overall I'm just going to see what happens with this and maybe write some more in the future.
Thanks for reading!
Between 86 billion to 17.2 trillion action potentials (possibly more, possibly less) firing at every second. Signals telling us about everything we are, everything that is outside of us, telling us ideas about the past and the future, creating the concept of the past and the future and going further then that to develop another concept for the concept of the past and the future. Developing ideas based on ideas and layering them up to make something completely new. Creation.
And somewhere along the way this happened. Somehow we developed to be able to do this, to not just feel and respond, but to think and to go outside of the box and see a different world than the one we actually see.
To find meaning in every day occurrences.
These signals are tiny, insignificant really. If you use a patch clamp method then you can isolate one neuron and look at an individual cell firing an individual signal and it is nothing. Just movement of ions, something that we do with electrical circuits on a daily basis to switch on the light. Just one signal means nothing.
But it means everything.
One signal acts with all of the other single signals and that is what makes our reality as we perceive it.
Living is based on neuronal firing. I recently started taking sertraline to try and help with anxiety levels, which have been growing for a while, and currently I am feeling the signals changing. While the serotonergic neuronal population in the brain is probably small, probably less than 1% of the total number of neurons that exist in the brain (the majority being glutamatergic and GABAergic) the interactions from changing those signals is evident.
The reason for this is that the brain is not just a switch-on/switch-off system. It is modulatory, with the character of the signals changing frequently. Sertraline is an example of a selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitor, meaning that it can inhibit the reuptake of serotonin by the pre-synaptic membrane meaning that more serotonin should be present in the synaptic cleft (the space between two neurons) for longer and so be able to communicate with the other neuron for longer leading to there being more of an effect caused by serotonergic receptors on the postsynaptic membrane. This is meant to reverse any imbalance in the interactions that occur and reduce the symptoms of conditions such as depression and a variety of anxiety disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder.
Changing the system. It changes an imbalance and so changes the firing, which in turn changes the picture.
It may not be changing what I perceive. I am seeing the same things, hearing the same things, touching the same things. But it is changing what is happening inside of me, it is changing my response to that.
Or maybe I'm changing. Neural plasticity. Maybe I'm becoming something different.
But something is changing. And that is an odd concept and honestly I do not like it. It feels wrong, something feels wrong and I am not able to figure out the cause properly. I know the science (well, as much as anyone knows it, the answer is that actually we don't understand much about any of this at all), but the reality doesn't make sense, and that is tricky. There is no simple answer, intact there is kind of no answer to what is happening.
There is just what is happening. There is life.
And where there is life, there is a continuing flow of events that have the potential to change. This could mean getting worse, but more importantly it could mean things getting better. A future where things are ok being developed out of the wreckage.
So that is what is there to continue with I guess. Things will go somewhere at some point, you just need to carry on and see where it takes you. And I guess that this is me writing about these things in some way. I'm ZackSkylar101 and I am going to try and write some stuff every now and then to try and give another perspective for people to read about. I have studied neuroscience and like brains
And all in all I just wanted to write something, so here's a thing If anyone has any questions about the science then I'm happy to try and explain bits (I quite enjoy it, so if anyone is curious I can try and give some answers), but overall I'm just going to see what happens with this and maybe write some more in the future.Thanks for reading!
